"Useless" bomb detector used by thousands

tres

tres

tres

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8471187.stm

The device is sold by Jim McCormick, based at offices in rural Somerset, UK.

The ADE-651 detector has never been shown to work in a scientific test.

There are no batteries and it consists of a swivelling aerial mounted to a hinge on a hand-grip. Critics have likened it to a glorified dowsing rod.
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Is anyone else simply shocked by this.
$40,000 per device :eek::eek::mad:

He says that the key to it is the black box connected to the aerial into which you put "programmed substance detection cards", each "designed to tune into" the frequency of a particular explosive or other substance named on the card.

He claims that in ideal conditions you can detect explosives from a range of up to 1km.

The training manual for the device says it can even, with the right card, detect elephants, humans and 100 dollar bills.

Claims of such almost magical technical abilities would almost be comic, if the potential consequences were not so serious.

Newsnight obtained a set of cards for the ADE-651 and took them to Cambridge University's Computer Laboratory where Dr Markus Kuhn dissected a card supposed to detect TNT.

It contained nothing but the type of anti-theft tag used to prevent stealing in high street stores.

Dr Kuhn said it was "impossible" that it could detect anything at all and that the card had "absolutely nothing to do with the detection of TNT".

"There is nothing to program in these cards. There is no memory. There is no microcontroller. There is no way any form of information can be stored," he added.
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Fraud on a grand scale.
I thought electronic equipment prior to sale would have to pass some sort of testing but thats probably aimed at health and safety rather than the product actually working.
Car bomb the guy, see if he picks up the exlosives.

Or on a more seriosu note, ask for the money back, and extratition to Iraq to stand trial if he can't produce the money.....
 
Looks like a RFID to me, if they are then they can store some data as they have a ROM with a serial number in it.
 
KNiVES said:
These are actually used by Iraqi forces to detect hidden explosives and IEDs if I recall correctly.
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Yep, and now they finally know how bombs have got through the security checkpoints using these. How can he live with himself, I do not know.

At least he's been arrested now.
 
Put the inventor in a field full of land mines and IEDs (and 100 dollar bills) and give him his device and let him find his way out.
 
More disgusted that people purchased it without trialing it first than the fact he actually sold it! Hell to be honest if I came up with an idea that simple to rake in that much cash I'd be seriously tempted to give it a go!
 
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